IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Forest Avenue, HARTLEPOOL, TS24 0AH

The coastline here is backed by high dunes which in the past have been developed for industrial use. Now all is dereliction.

Part of the partially demolished Steetley Magnesite Works (for further info. see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/614209).

Recent heavy rain has left shallow pools of water.

Millions have been spent in adding rock armour around Hartlepool's Headland less than a mile to the southeast to defend housing there from North Sea storms and the erosion they cause. The rock used is not entirely in keeping with the local geology (Magnesian Limestone) but at least it looks fairly natural. Here a cheaper and far less aesthetic solution has been adopted with huge amounts of builders' rubble and old reinforcing steel dumped in front of the dune face - no doubt avoiding landfill tax too! Small, and very rounded, pieces of brick litter the beach, suggesting that longevity was not a consideration, and that most of this material will end up adding much to the sand and nothing to the stability of the coast. Meanwhile, it is pretty offensive in its ugliness.

Follows the line of the former Hartlepool Dock and railway line opened in 1835 and finally closed in 1969.

View from the eastern edge of Hartlepool Old Town,The Headland, along North Sands.

Stands precariously on top of the dunes. The land on the right of the picture is an old industrial site.

Spion Kop Cemetery, originally known as Hartlepool Cemetery, is a disused cemetery on the coast near Hartlepool. It was opened in 1856 to replace St. Hilda's churchyard and designed by John Dobson. The area took its name from the Battle of Spion Kop in 1900 during the Boer War. The cemetery was formed from a combination of sand dune and ship's ballast. It is closed to new burials and is now managed as a local nature reserve.

Spion Kop Cemetery, originally known as Hartlepool Cemetery, is a disused cemetery on the coast near Hartlepool. It was opened in 1856 to replace St. Hilda's churchyard and designed by John Dobson. The area took its name from the Battle of Spion Kop in 1900 during the Boer War. The cemetery was formed from a combination of sand dune and ship's ballast. It is closed to new burials and is now managed as a local nature reserve. In the distance is the disused Steetley Magnesite pier at North Sands.